Hartford School Board Moves Toward Cutting Budget

Board Edges Closer To Cuts

Hartford May Lay Off Teachers

Tense and sometimes quarrelling Hartford Board of Education members voted unanimously Saturday for budget cuts that will mean the elimination of 332 school jobs and popular programs.

Maybe.

Board members are hoping that their game of high-stakes chess will force school employee unions to kick in the $8.5 million needed to balance the school budget. The stalemate began almost two weeks ago when Superintendent of Schools T. Josiha Haig announced to incredulous school employees that he would resign if just one employee were laid off because unions would not give up already-agreed upon wage increases for next year.

This time, though, it was board of education members making the ultimatum to union leaders, who crowded the meeting room with stacks of paper and calculators during the rare Saturday meeting.

After days of negotiations, board members took their first formal action, moving a step closer to layoff notices and Haig's departure. While the board met only as its budget committee -- all but one of nine board members were there -- Tuesday night it will take a final vote on the matter. However, board members say they will remain open to concessions from employees until school begins in the fall.

The cuts, which union and board members alike agree would devastate the school system and its 27,000 students, call for eliminating 265 teaching jobs, including workstudy, gifted and talented and other popular music and language programs.

Six of the 13 bargaining units have agreed to the concessions Haig and the board want. Two have offered partial concessions, and one of those, the teachers, are the target for 75 percent of the sought-after givebacks. Top administrators and board members are questioning the vague $3 million compromise offer agreed to by teachers last week, saying it is worth little more than $1 million in savings.

Board members repeatedly said they were serious about their actions Saturday.

"Everybody thinks that we are playing games," board President

Carmen Rodriguez said. "We are not playing games."

"The [layoff] notices have to go out as soon as possible," said the chairman of the budget committee, Allan B. Taylor. "We need to have anybody whose getting kicked off the payroll off the payroll as soon as possible."

Yet some said Saturday's vote was another attempt to bring the unions around.

"What the motion does is give an opportunity to the bargaining units who have said no to rethink their position," board member Courtney Gardner said. "I would think that good caring people would go back to the table and say, `hey, maybe we can do something.' "

Hartford Federation of Teachers President Jeanne N. Spencer agreed that Saturday's vote was another attempt to pressure the unions. "They are turning up the heat on everybody," she said. However, she added, "They are giving us an opportunity."

Spencer and other union leaders, administrators and board members all said they now believe Haig will leave if there is one layoff. Haig has also offered up to $50,000 of his $110,000 salary to reach the savings needed. Board members expressed strong support to the board at Saturday's meeting, and Haig offered firm handshakes to the men and kisses to the women on the board after the meeting.

And afterward, Haig said he will stick by his vows. "It is not gamesmanship," he said.

Also Saturday, board members joined the unions in a plea to the city council to give them more money, approving a resolution asking the council for $2 million on top of the $166.2 million education budget already approved by the council.

Union leaders, administrators and board members have been highly critical of the council members for running for office pledging support for education and then slicing $8.5 million from the board's budget request this year. Saturday, board members started challenging them on this.

Board member Ted Carroll said that however futile it is, the board has to appeal to the city council -- and let voters know where they stand. "We need to have the city council say yes or no to the children of the city," he said.